


the distance between a video call and a kiss

by ironicpotential, TaFuilLiom



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Long-Distance Relationship, Sanvers Secret Valentine 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22719748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironicpotential/pseuds/ironicpotential, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaFuilLiom/pseuds/TaFuilLiom
Summary: The mundane becomes the splendid in the time they share: cooking and eating together, how Alex made sure the coffee filter was in tight to the edges before pouring in the grounds. Those trivial tasks run over and over again in her mind as she repeats them herself alone.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Comments: 15
Kudos: 161
Collections: Secret Sanvers | A Sanvers Valentines Day Event





	the distance between a video call and a kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bloedhgarm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloedhgarm/gifts).



Eight-ball, corner pocket. 

The billiards table cuts into her stomach as she leans down, balancing the cue between her forefinger and thumb. Easy does it. 

She breathes in, aims—

“Hey Maggie.”

Doesn’t strike. 

She looks up over the table, smiling as Alex strides through the door. “Danvers! Hey, I was hoping you’d show up.” She sweeps an arm over the table. “Any interest in a game?”

“Actually,” Alex drags the word out, “I was wondering if you were still good for that drink you promised me.”

“You told Kara?” At Alex’s confirmation, the bar seems to brighten, the jukebox music like a triumphant anthem. “Yeah you did! I am so happy for you.”

She abandons the pool cue, wrapping her arms around Alex’s neck and hugging her tightly. She had planned to keep some distance between the two of them but she’s bursting with so much pride, she can’t help herself. This woman is so much braver than anyone Maggie has ever met. Only a few days before, Alex had still been wrestling with the idea that might be gay; now she’s confident enough with herself to come out to her sister. 

“I’m buying,” she proclaims, “all night. What are you having?”

She turns to head for the bar when Alex catches her by the wrist, spinning her around and pressing their lips together.

_Oh._

Maybe she should have seen this coming, but this feels like driving in the city at night: sometimes red traffic lights get lost in the washy blur of other neon until the last minute, when you’re forced to slam on the breaks. 

If she is being honest, she has thought about kissing Alex Danvers since the moment they met. Then, it was an idle thought about how much she’d like to tug at those pressed lapels and wipe the smug look of the uptight federal agent’s face. When she’d discovered Alex was DEO, that idle thought transformed into a full blown fantasy or two, especially after she’d seen the agent in action. 

That idle thought had returned sporadically over the past weeks, but Alex’s rebuke and subsequent confession about her sexuality had been a bucket of cold water. Maggie had been woken up and forced to take this crisis of conscience seriously, helping Alex to navigate her emotions and encouraging her to come out. 

She had been concentrating so hard, she hadn’t seen the full picture. Now, it is all in focus. 

Alex’s palms rest on her cheeks, her thumbs lightly tracing her dimples, as she kisses her in the dim light of the bar. 

“Wow,” she breathes.

"I've been wanting to do that," Alex says, awed.

In her work inbox there are several confirmation details. In a box file on her desk, there are sign offs for cases, court dates and clauses for transfer. Her personal email has flight confirmations, storage locations and well-wishes from colleagues. 

Right now in her arms, there is a woman looking at her like she hung each and every star in the sky. 

And thinking of all that paperwork, planning, preparation, Maggie knows she has to rip them all down again. 

"Yeah, uh, I can tell." 

Alex leers closer, making her duck back a step. 

"Listen I uh.” Maggie swallows the lump in her throat. "I can't."

"Oh." Alex’s hopeful, open expression deflates with the pinprick of Maggie’s rejection. "I-"

"No it's not-" Maggie scrambles to put her thoughts to words, trying to find some way to avoid this derailing too violently. "It's not you, Alex. I like you."

Eyeing her warily, Alex crosses her arms over her chest. Maggie rolls forward. “It’s just, I just accepted a promotion.”

"Okay?"

Maggie thinks of that stern cop interviewing her, who had flown all the way across the country and warned her before the questioning that _this had better be a good pitch_.

"It's in Gotham."

"Oh." Alex’s arms drop to her sides as she realizes what Maggie has been trying to convey. "You're leaving."

"I am," she confirms, "Major Crimes Unit. They want me to lead a new taskforce."

While she had applied for the transfer before their meeting on the tarmac, her assistance protecting President Marsdin that day had bumped her application to the top of the pile. The offer had been unbelievable and at the time she had nothing tying her to National City. 

Of course she had said yes. 

"That's um..." Alex’s voice wavers. "That's really great, Maggie."

It is great. It’s _amazing._ This is the opportunity she has been waiting for— the chance to take what she has learned working with the Science Division in National City and apply it to the greatly underserved extraterrestrial population of Gotham. She could be a leader. Under her guiding hand, she could change the culture of the GCPD for the better.

She has been naive to not factor her blossoming friendship with Alex into this. It had been a blindspot, the fact that she would have to say goodbye to her.

Now, Alex is inching away from her, close to tears. This isn’t how she intended to leave at all. "Alex..." 

Alex raises her palm, interrupting Maggie’s attempt at an apology. "I'll um, I gotta go." 

She turns back to the pool table and the lone eight-ball left on the green felt surface. Focus shaken, her grip on the cue wavers and the tip glances off the side of the cue ball, sending it hurtling off in the opposite direction. It teeters at the edge of the left middle pocket and Maggie slaps her palm down on the edge of the table in frustration.

The cue ball topples into the pocket.

Scratch.

~

She leaves in three days. 

Seventy-two hours. 

She’s already said her goodbyes to her friends at the precinct and M’gann at the bar. She’s filled out her change of address forms and arranged for her motorcycle to be shipped to Gotham. All that’s left is to pack up the rest of her apartment and load it all into the rented U-Haul waiting on the street. 

What a cliche.

A knock at the door interrupts the game of Jenga she’s playing with a box of books. She isn’t expecting anyone, but it’s possible that her neighbor Mrs. Krieg wants some last minute help with her shopping. Her back protests as she stands, sore from hours of heavy lifting and leaning over, and she gives herself a once-over. Her gym shorts and her old academy t-shirt are a little sweaty, but she’s already packed most of her wardrobe, so it’ll have to do.

When the door opens to reveal Alex, she feels as if the Jenga stack of books has collapsed off the coffee table. 

"Hey." Alex’s gaze skitters across the floor. She seems half ready to abandon the box she’s carrying to bolt for the elevator, but she stands her ground. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." Maggie waves her through the door. "Come in."

There’s nowhere to sit— Maggie sold her couch earlier in the morning to the Gazarian couple downstairs— so they side-step the minefield of boxes to lean up against the kitchen island. 

"Packing up?" Alex asks. 

"Yeah." Maggie surveys the wreckage of the life she had lived in her one-bedroom apartment. The air conditioner never worked when she needed it and the fire alarm was far too sensitive, but it was spacious and for a few years she was happy to call it home. The studio she’ll be renting in Gotham is a lot smaller and the building doesn’t have as many amenities, but the price is right. "Some stuff's coming with me. Some stuff's going into storage for a while."

"I brought something I-" Alex opens the box she had brought. Maggie peers inside and finds a gorgeous maple bonsai tree, perfect for the colder climate of Gotham. Research had clearly been done.

"I know you got a bunch of these but uh..." Alex sets it down gently on the counter and shrugs. "I thought you could grow it and y'know..."

The _think of me_ goes unspoken. Alex may be too embarrassed to say it, but the meaning of the bonsai is clear. 

She’s touched. 

"Thank you."

Alex clears her throat and it echoes around the empty space they occupy. “Look, you've been really important to me. As a colleague, a friend, a…” She waves her hand about, trying to summon the right words. "Whatever dragging me outta the closet is called."

The self-deprecating joke comes out so casually that Maggie has to chuckle, which brings a smile back to Alex’s face. There are so many ways that conversation in the bar could have gone. It’s a relief that she and Alex seem to be in a good place.

"So I just, I felt like I owed it to you to say thank you. And that I hope you...enjoy Gotham."

"This isn't a goodbye, Alex." Maggie rests her hand on Alex’s elbow. "I don't wanna imagine my life without you in it."

Alex plays with a cardboard flap. "So you're saying you wanna stay in touch?"

Maggie grins at the hopeful glint in her eyes. A feeling echoed in her own chest. In her heart. 

"Yeah, Danvers. I do."

~

Maggie settles in quickly, hitting the ground running in Gotham. While famous for its costumed variety of villains, the city has long been a haven for gang activity and the increased number of extraterrestrials moving to the area has also led to an uptick in trafficking of alien drugs and arms. 

It certainly keeps her busy. 

Still, she finds time to tend to her relationship with Alex, and to her bonsai.

They text nearly every day and have even facetimed over a case or two. She had thought that the distance would help stifle the embers of their ill-fated feelings, but still, every time she sees Alex’s face it stokes the fire within. 

She’s pining, she knows it, and the tweets she sees on Kara’s account only make it worse.

_@Kara_Danv3rs: Big sister going off on her first tinder date with a woman last week, 9 days later, she’s been on two more already!_

Alex is _dating_. 

She sets her phone upside down on her kitchen table. She’s due to Skype with Alex about a case— wants to pick her brains about what Alex knows about the DEO unit in Gotham. 

The Skype dial tone rings and she answers the call on her laptop. 

_“Hey, Sawyer!”_

Alex is dressed in a sweatshirt and balancing a plate on her knee. It’s truly a wonder she never figured out she was gay sooner, the woman can’t sit in a chair straight to save her life. 

_“I see you’re finally fully unpacked,”_ she jokes, _“Not a box in sight.”_

“Finally,” Maggie says, “They’ve been running me ragged.”

 _“It’s good though?”_ Alex pops the lid off a bottle of beer. It has become tradition to have dinner and drinks with each other during their calls. It’s as close to domestic as they can get with the distance between them.

“Yeah, it’s good.” She runs her thumb along the opening of her own beer bottle, Kara’s tweets about her big sister dating still on her mind. "So you uh, went out with a woman?"

 _"Oh, a few.”_ Alex shrugs, her mouth full of lo mein. 

"A few, wow," she marvels, sipping her own drink. 

_"Might have even got a kiss or two."_

"Oh, Casanova!"

They share a laugh, and continue to fill each other in on the mundane details of life as they eat, but Maggie can’t stop thinking about the smirk on Alex’s face when she spoke of kissing other women. 

Alex seems to notice her discomfort because she stops halfway through a terrible joke and asks, _"You okay?"_

Her cheeks heat with jealousy and embarrassment at being caught out. "I'm fine. Just..." She sets her own fork down. "The case."

 _"The case, right."_ Alex puts her plate away and wipes her mouth, focusing through Maggie's laptop screen. _"Hit me with it."_

Glad of the distraction, Maggie does.

~

It doesn’t take long before texting nearly every day becomes talking _every_ day.

She scans her phone screen every morning for notifications from Alex, and never neglects to say goodnight. They banter all day long through messenger about terrible coworkers and Maggie’s inability to find decent Mexican food outside of California. They tell each other to stay safe when they’re headed into battle, or worse, a meeting with the brass. With each day, it gets more and more intimate and less about work, and when Alex finally comes out to her mother, Maggie is the first person she calls. 

She’s visibly tipsy from Thanksgiving dinner, but her smile lights up Maggie’s computer screen, and the holiday is suddenly a lot less lonely. 

_“Of course then she started asking if I was seeing anyone,”_ Alex says, _“and then that set Kara off talking about this woman she wanted to set me up with at CatCo. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I deleted Tinder weeks ago.”_

_Oh._

Alex picks at a loose thread in her sweater, glancing up through her eyelashes. Maggie’s stomach clenches, slowly, like a vice crushing a car. 

She doesn’t know what they are. They’re not just friends. Just friends don’t call each other every day. Just friends don’t feel the level of relief she feels when Alex texts her selfies after dangerous ops— covered in purple secretions or alien slime, but alive and smiling.

Before, Alex had been dating and Maggie’s mind had been doing backflips off the diving board of irrational thinking, inundating her with thoughts of Alex having dinner with other women. Kissing other women. Doing… more with women who weren’t her. 

But now… 

This could be the chance she’s been waiting for. 

"What if I said..." Her heart thumps like a caged rabbit, rattling against her rib cage, begging to be let out. "I still liked you."

The intensity of Alex’s wide-eyed stare bores through the monitor, straight into Maggie’s soul. That hope has returned. _"You do?"_

"I..." There’s no going back now. She forges ahead. "You know that turning you down was never about that." 

_“But Gotham, right?”_

“I didn’t want to start something I couldn’t finish. I was planning to tell you about the move to Gotham, it just…”

Alex smiles sadly. _"Missed chance, huh?"_

Missed chance.

That’s one way to put it. She’d been at a fork in the road and didn’t have the bravery to take the path less traveled. She had never had a long distance relationship before and so she had used Gotham as an easy out because the truth is, Alex scared her. She was new and Maggie had been hurt before by women who tossed her away as soon as a better option came along. The added distance only amplified those fears. But the idea that Alex was dating people who weren’t her turned her stomach into uncomfortable knots. 

She would rather be with Alex like this than be haunted by what-ifs the rest of her life. She could walk down the unbeaten path if Alex were by her side.

And really… haven’t they been dating in all but words already?

She takes a deep breath in, letting the crackling Skype connection ground her in the moment. "It doesn't need to be."

~

They agree to leave it there because Alex has had a few too many glasses of wine and Maggie is hours ahead and dead-tired from work, but Alex won’t let the matter go.

She brings it up the next time they Skype, once again being brave.

Fidgeting on the monitor, she launches into a nervous ramble, _“Okay so I’ve thought about this- I mean not obsessed- well maybe a little- but I wanna warn that I might not be fantastic at this, but I want to be! But only if you want to.”_

“Alex-”

_“I just really think that this could work-”_

“Alex, I-”

_“And really, Maggie, I mean we’re already basically dating and-”_

“Alex, yes!” 

_“And-”_ Alex stops mid-ramble abruptly. She is so still that Maggie worries her internet has gone out, but then Alex bursts into a wild, excited grin. _“Really? You want to?”_

Alex’s joy is contagious and Maggie fills with warmth. “Yeah, Alex. I do.”

~

"I'm in town. Wanna catch up?" 

Alex calls Maggie, all flirty and nonchalant, even though she’d told Maggie about her training in Gotham weeks ago. Maggie had arranged the whole weekend to show her around the city and they were both buzzing with excitement at seeing each other again. 

"Sure." 

They meet for coffee and the kiss Alex gives her when she sits down at Maggie’s table is sweet, the feeling lingering long after they part.

Alex had been offered a fancy hotel room, paid in full by the DEO, but she’d turned it down in favor of staying with Maggie in her apartment. They’d both agreed that there was less pressure that way. 

Still, even as they lay side by side in Maggie’s queen sized bed, the air between them is charged.

“Why are you so far away?” Alex asks. 

Maggie turns her head, searching out Alex’s face is the dark. In the light of day, it’s much easier to find contentment in the handful of kisses they’ve shared and the knowledge that they’re in the same city. A bedroom holds more possibilities. 

More temptations.

And they’d agreed to take things slowly.

“I’m giving you space.”

“I came out for you,” Alex snorts, “You think I want _space_?”

Maggie laughs at Alex’s indignant joke and the blankets rustle as Alex turns on her side and waggles her hand in the air. “I’ve spent 28 years thinking I was straight. Come over here and show me whether this spooning thing is really up to the hype.”

Called in, she shuffles close, her arm coming to rest low on Alex’s hip. She risks a kiss against the back of Alex’s neck and is rewarded with the feeling of Alex relaxing against her. Maggie knows that Alex has probably spooned with other people— with men— but could never relax with them. 

“Oh, okay I get it now.”

Another soft laugh, this time from Alex, then both of them are quiet, just feeling each other breathe. Maggie traces Alex’s hipbone with her thumb. She’s never felt so comfortable with another person either. 

Alex pulls Maggie’s arm tighter around her waist, then softly, “Hey Maggie?” 

“Yeah?”

“I know we talked about not rushing this just because our time actually together without a laptop screen is so short,” she pauses, the thought hanging in the air, “But I...don’t wanna waste this time either.”

“Okay.” She tries to modulate her voice, to temper her own nerves, but she wonders if Alex can feel her heart thumping. Wonders if Alex knows how much she’s thought about this very moment. “This is at your own pace.”

Alex shuffles around to face Maggie. They’re nose to nose, breath mingling. “In that case, we need to speed this up.”

~

The next morning feels like renewal. 

Maggie wakes up early, Alex’s hair feather soft on her cheek. She traces her fingertips over freckles, shoulder blades, spine. If Alex didn’t have a meeting at 9am, they could spend a morning on a second round - a third, even.

Instead, Alex shyly holds her sheets to her chest while Maggie patters to the kitchen and back. They take separate showers despite joking about saving water and heat together, and then make their plans. 

“You’re taking a half day, Sawyer?” Detective Allen raises an eyebrow over his thermos of coffee. “Are pigs flying outside?”

Maggie gathers her things, slinging her bag over her shoulder with a grin. “Nah, my girlfriend’s coming to pick me up.”

“No more details.”

She says goodbye to the rest of the Major Crimes Unit for the weekend and makes her way to the exit. She opens the door to find Alex waiting for her on the stone steps, looking so radiant even in the grey of the overcast day. She seems to soften the hard edges of this city, so different than the architecture she had grown used to in California.

Alex insists on kissing her hello and Maggie doesn’t object. “I’ve been waiting all morning to do that.”

Maggie bumps their shoulders together as they walk down the steps hand in hand. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Maggie squeezes her hand. “I called you my girlfriend today.”

“Oh.”

Alex is quiet as they reach the bottom of the stairs and Maggie wonders if perhaps she overstepped, her mind already whirring with ways to backtrack. “Is that okay?”

Alex looks at her with wide eyes. “Okay? That’s amazing.” She bounces back and forth, giddy, and bursts into a fit of giggles. “I have- I have a girlfriend.”

Maggie pulls her close, wrapping her arms around her waist and kissing her again. “You do.” 

It’s freeing, being with Alex like this. It makes Gotham City feel a bit more like home. 

Their bliss is interrupted by a loud growl and Alex laughs. “So, are you gonna buy your girlfriend lunch, or is she going to starve?”

~

When it rains in Gotham City, it pours. 

It catches them unaware and without umbrellas just as they’re exiting the deli, sending them running. They find refuge in a dollar store and peer into the umbrella stand. Alex unsheathes one which, according to the plastic tag, bears the emblem of Gotham City. She raises an eyebrow as Maggie grabs it and takes it to the counter.

“Tacky, but necessary.”

Bustling under the umbrella and squabbling over who holds it given their height difference, they finally make their way to the Gotham City Museum of Modern Art. The security guard gives them a nasty look as they drip water through the foyer, so Maggie makes sure to leave a few extra dollars in the donation bin. 

Strolling through the cavernous rooms filled with all those strange, thought provoking exhibits wasn’t on the agenda for the day, but they both love soaking up culture. Each room has a new wonder, a new bit of weird. They relish the feeling of being together, taking selfies with an interactive exhibit on light and coming up with increasingly more absurd meanings for pieces of art.

One of the temporary exhibits pulls at Alex’s attention, an exposé on the extraterrestrial experience in the city. It illustrates poverty, loss, and blending of culture, with an emphasis on violence against alien communities— all taken from the perspective of a famous alien photographer. 

“Wow,” Alex murmurs, struck by the images. 

“You okay?”

They’re standing in front of a wall of photos, all in black and white and showing anger and anguish, protests, police brutality. There’s one photo at the end of the row that Alex gravitates to: three aliens cowering away from a paramilitary group.

“This is DEO,” she says, hushed, “They’re a different division in a colder city so we don’t have these…” The figures are wearing tactical anoraks with blacked-out logos— but something about them is similar to the DEO in National City. The leg holsters perhaps. 

They leave the museum feeling both fulfilled and completely ripped apart, but not before stopping at the gift shop for a palate cleanser. 

Cuddling close under their new emblazoned umbrella, they head to a cafe around the corner, ready for the deep conversation that such an experience can bring.

“You know, I think if I saw that photograph before I met you, I wouldn’t have seen the problem with it.” Alex sits across from her at a table squeezed into the corner of the cafe, hands wrapped tightly around a cup of coffee, feeding from its warmth. 

Maggie takes a bite from their shared slice of cheesecake, scooping up another onto her fork and offering it over the table. "Yeah you would."

"No I really wouldn't." Alex leans forward and takes the bite into her mouth, chewing slowly. “Makes me wonder how much we meet people for a reason.”

~

The next morning the rain has stopped, yet two figures cuddled up in a studio apartment downtown remain drenched in melancholy. 

"I don't want you to go." Maggie presses a kiss to Alex’s head.

Her flight is in four hours and Maggie has done the math. They can stay in bed together for an hour longer, no more, no less. Alex groans softly in disgust and nuzzles closer. 

Maggie listens to the soft breathing against her clavicle and the traffic outside. 

They could choose not to get up. They could quit their jobs, stay in this room together forever, but both of them are too driven. Alex’s dedication to her duty is one of the things Maggie finds most attractive. 

So they do get up, eventually. Exactly one hour later. One makes coffee while the other showers, and vice versa; and on her way back from the bathroom, still dressed in a borrowed bathrobe, Alex catches Maggie by the waist and presses her against the kitchen counter. They fall into each other again, wanting more than the few stolen kisses they share, punctuated with breathy giggles. 

“We don’t have time,” Maggie whispers, pressing their foreheads together. Alex pouts, but relents and stalks off to Maggie’s dresser to steal a t-shirt.

But they do have time for one last cup of coffee at the airport before Alex goes off for departures. 

“Skype just won’t be the same.”

“No,” Maggie says, unable to look away from her girlfriend, hoping that if she never lets her out of her sight, they won’t have to say that dreaded word. 

But they do. 

“Goodbye.”

They hug, share one last kiss, then Alex makes sure to hunch her shoulders. She goes quickly, before she can change her mind. 

~

They continue the relationship, but it isn’t the same now that they’ve known physical intimacy with each other. Maggie has had sex with other women yet never had a honeymoon period divided so sharply— wanting to touch and taste her skin and not being able to through a laptop screen.

Alex voices as much frustration. She was learning and growing confident with herself and with Maggie. They were just getting started and she feels like she was cut off at the wrong time.

“Four nights is nothing,” she gripes on a Skype call, “I’m not complaining but I really felt...I mean that last night...”

Her blush is visible even on the screen and they both share a smile, remembering those final hours spent wrapped up in each other. Alex tapers off after getting swept up in her frustration. “You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, Danvers, I know what you mean.”

But there are other intimacies that they let themselves in on, both emotional and intellectual, the act of exploring the angles of someone’s mind along with their body. The mundane becomes the splendid in the time they share: cooking and eating together, how Alex made sure the coffee filter was in tight to the edges before pouring in the grounds. Those trivial tasks run over and over again in her mind as she repeats them herself alone. 

Maggie makes coffee, yet all she can think of as the machine rumbles is the way Alex held her coffee cup in both hands, but stared at Maggie’s own as if she’d rather be holding her hand instead. 

She wants to know how Alex cuts her vegetables; if those knife skills honed in tactical training translate to the kitchen. How she scrolls through her phone— if she idly flicks through her newsfeed looking at the headlines or if she dives in deep. She scours her mind for details she remembers from all those nights spent at the bar playing pool together, every detail given new life in her fantasies.

 _“You know what I think is nice?”_ Alex asks one night as they’re drinking glasses of wine poured from two separate bottles. 

“What?” 

_“I have a temper,”_ Alex admits, _“And yet in the five days we spent together I never got sick of you.”_

Maggie laughs at this, she can certainly empathise. Her own temper often runs short, but not with Alex. Never with Alex. 

“I have boundary issues.” Maggie offers up her own truth in return. “Yet I didn’t feel like you were invading my space. I wanted to keep you here.” 

_“We’re a pair, huh?”_

They raise their wine glasses to their laptop cameras and toast. 

~

Maggie trudges over the threshold of her apartment, kicking off her boots in the middle of the room. She doesn’t even stop to take off her jacket before she collapses on the couch, sinking deep into the cushions. 

It had been a rough day. She’d been working a string of alien kidnappings and a tip had led her to an abandoned warehouse near Gotham Harbor. When she arrived, she found the victims, but they weren’t in one piece. Someone had decided to play Frankenstein and the warehouse had served as their grotesque laboratory. 

She kept a steely facade up while she worked the scene, but those images followed her home. She’s shaken and she just wants to talk it out with Alex. 

The phone rings twice before Alex picks up. 

“Hey. You around to talk?” 

_“Sorry Maggie. About to launch an op in 20. Is everything okay?”_

Maggie wills her voice to remain steady. She doesn’t want to distract Alex before a mission. Not when a single missed step could mean injury or worse. “Nothing urgent. Stay safe, okay?”

She wishes Alex good luck and hangs up the phone, loneliness creeping in. On a night like this, she craves Alex’s companionship, physical and emotional. She just wants to hear her voice. Be held. 

But there isn’t even time for a Skype. She stares at her laptop abandoned on a side table, then the city lights streaked across her ceiling. 

~

Alex had waited to update her sister on her relationship because she didn’t want to take the chance that Kara would try to dissuade her; but by the time Maggie’s own trip comes around, Alex has notified her entire family. 

The baggage claim is bustling, the mechanical whirring of the conveyor belts backing the din of people searching for their suitcases and their loved ones. Amidst the chaos is the one person Maggie has been yearning for, her girlfriend, scanning the crowd, holding a large bouquet of mixed flowers. She’d mentioned once, months ago, that she’d never received flowers from a girlfriend and Alex had been horrified. 

Alex _listens._ She learns and adapts. She cares.

Maggie throws her arms around Alex’s neck and the flowers almost get squashed in the kiss that they share.

“These are-” She looks down at the flowers, then up to Maggie, cheeks dusted with blush. “For you.”

Maggie takes the flowers, holding them up to enjoy the fresh scent. “Thank you.”

They watch the slow rotation of the baggage carousel, waiting for Maggie’s bag to appear. The other passengers crowd around, jostling for position. 

“You know, I almost got rushed by a frat boy picking up his clubs,” Alex says as their view is blocked by two men in polo shirts. 

Maggie raises an eyebrow. “Who comes to National City to golf?”

“I know, right?”

Bags continue to spill out onto the carousel and they just stand back for a moment, happy to once again be in the same time zone. Maggie catches a glimpse of a familiar blue bag and dashes over to yank it off the belt before returning to Alex’s side with a triumphant smile. 

Alex laughs at her antics. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you, too.” Maggie takes her hand, winding their fingers together, and gazes up at her fondly. “You’re taller than I remember.”

“And you’re smaller.” Alex dips down to kiss her again.

Alex has brought her DEO-issued SUV to pick Maggie up, so they load her bag into the trunk and Maggie climbs into the passenger seat. 

“My mom is at my place I-” Alex’s hand stills on the key in the ignition. “You don’t have to meet her. I can banish her to Kara’s.”

Maggie shakes her head with a smile. “I want to meet her.”

She normally hates meeting the parents, but with Alex she’s eager to make a good impression. She wants to be ingrained in Alex’s life, piece by piece.

~

All too soon, Maggie is at the airport again after a truly magical week

Alex had surprised her with a late birthday present at the marina— whiskey flights and food tasting while looking out at the sailboats. They’d had dinner with Alex’s family and she’d gotten to meet Eliza, who pulled her into the kitchen to thank her for making her daughter smile. She even brought Alex coffee at the DEO on a day her girlfriend was called in, relishing the normalcy that simple act could bring. 

She had worried that so much time apart would make things awkward when it came to sleeping together, but those worries were unfounded. They’d been so eager that first night, frantically pulling at each other’s clothes. That urgency softened as the days went on and they savoured time because they could.

The last night, lying with their limbs entwined, sweaty and satiated, she’d gone to sleep again with that dreaded ticking clock in the back of her mind. 

And suddenly she blinks and she’s at the airport, like she was having a dumb dream about this lasting forever when she knew she only had seven days. She remembers the ache in her chest when Alex left Gotham. That feeling has intensified now, growing each time they’re forced apart.

She tries not to cry through security, letting the mechanics and the cool professionalism of the TSA keep her in the moment rather than dwelling on the goodbye. Yet two fat, salty tears trail down blazing cheeks as she goes through the full body scanner and she’s filled with humiliation when the TSA agents exchange looks of pity. 

Back in Gotham, she has a couple of days before she’s back at work, which is good because she’s not sure she’d be any use. She feels like she’s walking through sludge. Rather than wallow in her living room, she goes for a run to try and get the chemistry kickstarted in her head again and get out of the slump. 

This wouldn’t be forever. She just has to repeat that mantra and she could make it through. 

One day at a time. 

Meanwhile they continue having their Skype dates as often as they can manage and they start sending flirty pics. Alex hasn’t done this sort of thing and felt good about it, but she admits that with Maggie she feels wanted and appreciated. 

And then Maggie’s special contract with the Gotham City Police Department is up. Her old position is still available back in NCPD, but the GCPD has made her an incredibly attractive offer to stay permanently. It comes with a salary raise and she could continue the work in Gotham City of which she has become so proud. She’s been able to shut down several alien drug smuggling operations, she’s helped to set up a network of contacts and trusted informants, and she’s made such headway in building community relations with police by establishing new training programs. 

She tells Alex about the offer immediately. She’s not the only one she takes into account when planning out her life anymore. 

She sighs, rubbing her temples. “There are big decisions to be made.”

Miles away, Alex sits on her bed, her face solemn. _“Yeah. So...what are you gonna do?”_

Maggie listens to the whir of the connection, letting the white noise fill the silence. 

She says nothing. 

But she makes a decision.

~

“Ah, Noonan’s.”

She leans back in her chair, letting the sun warm her face. There’s nothing like Southern California weather. 

Alex laughs from across the table. She’d insisted on taking Maggie out for breakfast on her first day back at the NCPD.

“Missed it?” she asks with a smile. 

“Yeah. Maybe about the only thing I did.”

Alex gently kicks her shin under the table, sniggering. They both know why Maggie was willing to cart her belongings back across the country and it wasn’t for Noonan’s sticky buns. 

“I’ve spent a lot of time fantasising about moving back to be with you.”

Alex sighs happily. “I can’t believe I’m so invested in the normal things. Cooking, cleaning, building furniture.”

“Shopping,” Maggie adds. 

“Oh,” Alex snorts in disgust, “I am _not_ being converted to your weird diet.”

“In time you might be…”

Alex makes a face and they both laugh before settling in to finish their waffles and coffee. They people watch, exchange idle banter, and it feels so easy and free. Not rushed.

She’s going to get to come home to Alex tonight and will get to wake up next to her tomorrow and every day after that. 

They have time now. Together. 


End file.
